Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade has published the state’s cost norms that will govern mandatory energy audits for large energy users. Circular 70/2026/TT-BCT sets out the state’s economic-technical norms for performing energy audits, the mandatory inspections that Circular 64/2026 requires on a fixed cycle. The circular was signed on 31 October 2026 and takes effect on 16 December 2026. It is enacted but not yet in force.
Document facts
Issuing body: Ministry of Industry and Trade (signed for the Minister by Deputy Minister Nguyen Viet Son)
Document number: Circular 70/2026/TT-BCT (pricing companion to Circular 64/2026/TT-BCT; amends or replaces nothing)
Signed: 31 October 2026
Effective: 16 December 2026
Status: Enacted, not yet in force
Unofficial English summary for reference only. Not a legal translation and not legal advice. The Vietnamese text linked at the end of this page is authoritative.
What the document does
The circular lays out the state’s standard cost norms for performing energy audits: how much labor, machinery time and materials one unit of audit work should consume, from preparation to the finished audit report. Think of it as the official budgeting recipe. From 16 December 2026, when a provincial Department of Industry and Trade or a state-funded facility commissions an energy audit, the cost estimate will need to be built from these norms. Article 1 sets out the norms, Article 2 fixes the 16 December 2026 effective date with a transition clause, and Article 3 names the units responsible for implementation.
The preamble cites the Energy Efficiency Law (Law 50/2010/QH12, as amended by Law 77/2025/QH15), the State Budget Law 89/2025/QH15, Decree 30/2026, Decree 32/2019 on public-service norms, Circular 47/2018 on norm methodology, and Circular 64/2026 itself. That lineage places the circular inside the public-service budgeting framework: once effective, state money spent on audits will be estimated the same way everywhere.
The norms are structured around three cost pillars. The labor pillar specifies direct labor time to audit one facility, plus overhead as a percentage of direct labor cost, covering management, field operation, safety and hygiene, and statutory employer contributions (social, health and unemployment insurance, union fees and occupational-accident insurance). The machinery pillar specifies machine-shifts for the measurement equipment an audit needs. The materials pillar specifies consumables by type, with recovery ratios. Each norm is assigned a code, a work name, a unit of measure, defined work components and coefficient rules.
What changes in practice
The practical change will be standardization. Key energy users already face mandatory audits on the cycle Circular 64/2026 sets. Until now, pricing that audit work was a negotiation without a state reference. From 16 December, every estimate starts from the same tables: eight facility-size bands by annual energy consumption, measured in tonnes of oil equivalent (TOE), from KTNL.01 (500 to under 1,000 TOE a year) up to KTNL.08 (1,000,000 TOE and above). Each band has three codes: one for labor and overhead (KTNL.xxLD), one for machinery and equipment (KTNL.xxMTC), and one for materials (KTNL.xxVT).
One precision point: these are state cost norms for budgeting audit work, not market price controls. A private audit firm and a private factory remain free to agree their own price. From 16 December 2026, the norms will bind the estimate when public money or the state’s audit regime is involved. Unit prices follow current state regulations, as do indirect costs such as pre-tax profit and VAT; sector-specific coefficients and allowances will apply on top.
The transition clause protects work already in motion. Audits whose budgets were approved or whose contracts were signed before 16 December will continue under the rules in force at approval or signing, unless the parties agree otherwise. One hard limit will apply: the competent authority’s total allocated budget will not be permitted to exceed the approved budget.
What changed from the previous rules
Nothing was replaced. Circular 70/2026 is a first-of-its-kind instrument: there was no earlier state norm for pricing energy-audit work to compare it against. It does not amend Circular 64/2026; it completes it. Circular 64 created the mandatory audit obligation and the audit methodology, while Circular 70 will provide the pricing framework for the work. Readers comparing the two should treat them as a pair, not as successive versions of the same rule.
Who is affected
Three groups. First, energy-audit service providers, who from 16 December 2026 must build estimates from the KTNL code tables for audits touching the state regime, and who are expected to track implementation and propose adjustments as costs move. Second, key energy users and the facilities commissioning audits, who will see estimates structured around the eight TOE bands and should check their band before accepting the labor and machinery quantities proposed. Third, provincial Departments of Industry and Trade and other budget-holding authorities, who will approve the estimates and whose total allocations will not be permitted to exceed approved budgets.
Notes for investors and operators
For investors, this is a small but telling piece of Vietnam’s energy-efficiency machinery. Mandatory audits feed the national energy-data system, and standardized pricing will remove a friction point in commissioning them. The KTNL bands also signal enforcement priorities: the largest bands name the industrial users the program cares about most. The timing is deliberate: Circular 64’s audit obligations bite from 20 November 2026, and Circular 70’s pricing norms will follow on 16 December, so the next cycle of estimates lands on a priced basis.
What businesses should do next: audit providers should map their service lines to the KTNL.xxLD, KTNL.xxMTC and KTNL.xxVT codes now, so estimates issued from 16 December are compliant on day one. Facilities with budgets approved or contracts signed before that date should confirm in writing which rule set governs, relying on the transition clause. Everyone else commissioning audits for 2027 should ask for estimates built explicitly from the circular’s tables, and verify the facility’s TOE band before accepting the proposed quantities.
Updated November 4, 2026: added the official signed-PDF link to Sources.
Sources and the official text
Government of Vietnam official document host, signed PDF of Circular 70/2026/TT-BCT (Vietnamese): https://datafiles.chinhphu.vn/cpp/files/vbpq/2026/11/70-bct.signed.pdf
Thu Vien Phap Luat: document page not yet indexed; will be added when available.
Ministry of Industry and Trade announcement of Circular 70/2026/TT-BCT (issuing body’s publication): https://moit.gov.vn/tin-tuc/bo-cong-thuong-ban-hanh-thong-tu-quy-dinh-dinh-muc-kinh-te-ky-thuat-thuc-hien-kiem-toan-nang-luong.html
LuatVietnam legal database, Circular 70/2026/TT-BCT signed-text reproduction (Vietnamese): https://demo.luatvietnam.vn/cong-nghiep/thong-tu-70-2026-tt-bct-quy-dinh-dinh-muc-kinh-te-ky-thuat-kiem-toan-nang-luong-453994-d1.html
vietnam.vn state portal, reproduction of the Circular 70 announcement: https://www.vietnam.vn/en/bo-cong-thuong-ban-hanh-thong-tu-quy-dinh-dinh-muc-kinh-te-ky-thuat-thuc-hien-kiem-toan-nang-luong
About this explainer: VoltViet prepared this summary in English from the official Vietnamese text so that investors and operators can follow what the document does. It is a reading aid, not a translation of record and not legal advice. Where any wording here differs from the Vietnamese text, the Vietnamese text governs. For decisions with legal or financial consequences, rely on the official text linked above and take advice from a qualified Vietnamese lawyer.
Related reading
More explainers from the Policy & Law desk, and reporting from the Green Economy desk. See also our explainer on the companion audit regime: Circular 64/2026/TT-BCT Tightens Energy Audits From November 20.
